Jenny,
I was in a similar position as you. I had done a lot of research and decided that a Chesapeake 17 was the boat for me but was still a little nervous about buying it sight-unseen. I e-mailed the folks at CLC and asked if they had anyone in my hometown who had CLC boats that I could look at. They were great and promptly gave me a list of locals with boats. I called up a couple of these guys and was able to look at them and even take one for a test paddle. I encourage you to contact CLC and I'm sure they will do the same for you. By the way, the folks at CLC were so great an answering my jillion questions. This is my first boat and they were patient and informative, while being thankfully short on the hard-sell BS that you can get from other commercial enterprises. Give them a buzz and good luck.

Cheers,
Brent Curtis
Durham, NC